Liontamer Posted August 17, 2023 Share Posted August 17, 2023 (edited) Link: Remixer name: MaxStack User ID: 38704 Game: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim System: Windows, various consoles Name of arrangement: Dragonwave Original Name: The Song of the Dragonborn The game is already on the website. Anything is better in synthwave. -- https://maxstack.rocks/ Edited September 26, 2023 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted September 5, 2023 Share Posted September 5, 2023 waveform sausage right off the bat. the mastering is way slammed, with the kick causing compressor ducking. it's hard to hear much nuance in any of the instruments. so this is an instant no without turning literally every element down by half, turning off all master lane limiters and compression, and then slowly balancing it more appropriately. i think that it'd make a lot of sense to look into EQ work as well to get the bass/pad and the kick out of the same ranges. so, looking past that, let's go through the arrangement. the intro build towards the dovahkiin melodic line is certainly exciting. the arpeggiating synth doesn't sound like it's got any verb on it so it's a little out of sorts there. it also sounds like the chord it's arpeggiating at 0:43 is wrong, unless you're supposed to be arpeggiating the ii chord there starting in first inversion (i think, didn't sit down to figure it out). the melodic content blows through continuously until the 'break' at 1:23, which is a lot for such blown-out mastering. the break is about five seconds, and then we're into a solo section that somehow also doesn't have a clear beat despite having four on the floor. the solo started out pretty neat, but the pitch-bends at like 1:42 really make it lose energy. the lack of movement on the synth tone used is also a missed opportunity for something neat to emphasize those sustains that you're using - they sound pretty boring by themselves, but a neat LFO or filter gate would do some fun stuff there. after the solo, the melodic material blows through again in a straight line with no changes from how it was done before, except this time the synth solo is doing some stuff on top and noodling around (mostly off-pitch, from the sound of it). this switches to the handdrum beat instead of finishing strong, and does this for a while before inexplicably taking a one-second fadeout rather than a finishing chord. i would say that the underlying idea - big in-your-face synthy version of the very exciting dovahkiin theme - is a neat one. the mastering is really rough and needs a ton of work. the synth ideas are standard but effective, but they stay the same throughout a 3+ minute piece that also has essentially no dynamics, so they get tiring quick. some more variation of synth choices would help immensely, as would some more personalization of the melodic material and your approach. right now this is not passable. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted September 22, 2023 Share Posted September 22, 2023 I'm afraid I'm also a NO mere seconds in. This is more heavily crushed and distorted than anything I've heard in recent memory. And as far as the arrangement goes, I'm in agreement with proph as well: I was itching for a change from that shrill, vanilla lead less than a minute in, and it didn't let up for the entire piece. This needs quite a lot of work in production, dynamic interest, and synth selection for starters. There are interesting riff ideas, but they need fundamentals to hold them up. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted September 26, 2023 Author Share Posted September 26, 2023 Wow. Opens up way too loud, compressed, and distorted. 20 seconds in, this is unfortunately already a guaranteed NO on production, which is a shame. Lots of shrill, piercing synths, and then even a moment from 1:22-1:24 of exposed beats and claps that feels like General MIDI stuff. When I say this, it'll sound like I hated the track or that I think you have no shot at future success; I'm merely evaluating what I hear now rather than your future potential. This has loads of energy, just 0 effort given to mix or balance this, and I'm channeling Gordon Ramsey when I say the way it's currently produced sounds absolutely dreadful. It's clear this wasn't listened to on any headphones before submitting this. Even with such a high encoding (274kbps), this sounds like a 64kbps encoding. I appreciate prophetik being able to drill down on the arrangement. It's not often that MindWanderer and I BOTH appear to be in the dismissive camp; it's difficult to even begin to closely analyze the writing, when the way this is mixed is so difficult to listen to. Not much to be done here, Max, even with a potential overhaul, but prophetik's advice can be applied to future tracks, and there's still value in this as a learning experience, especially one that you can look back on down the line to appreciate your progression. If you're not using our Post Your Game ReMixes forum and/or #workshop channel in our Discord for feedback, you're doing yourself a disservice. Please avail yourself of those resources, dust yourself off, and keep at it! NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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